Today I met with the “Independent Person” to discuss a complaint against me that has rumbled on for two and a half years at tax payers expense. Anyone for a witch hunt?

Timescale

The “alleged incident” happened in November 2016. A complaint was not registered until December 2017. Humberside Police only permit a one year timescale for such complaints. For ERYC to permit more than a year undermines the Police complaints procedure. The first I knew about the complaint was August 2018.

Code of Conduct

The Code of Conduct applies to elected Councillors. I was not acting in my role as an ERYC Councillor at the time of the “alleged incident”. This is confirmed by the complainant.

Data Breach

At best this “alleged incident” was a breach of Data and as stated by Mathew Buckley, ERYC, Head of Legal and Monitoring Officer, to the Standards Committee any such breach must be dealt with by ICO not the ERYC Standards Committee.

Phone Put Down

During this long-winded process the Investigating officer put the phone down on me three times while I was attempting to discuss the case with him.

Breached Data of Complainant

The Investigating Officer went from bad to worse by then forwarding me the email address, home phone number and mobile phone number of the complainant in Breach of Data Protection legislation.

After wasting two and a half years ERYC have now run out of time to complete the complaint process against me. They are now claiming that if I am reelected they will continue the complaint in the new term of office.

This is despite the fact that from 23.59 and 59 seconds on May 6 until an induction at County Hall on either May 7 or May 8 I and indeed all elected would not be an ERYC Councillor.

As such my previous “contract” to abide by the ERYC Code of Conduct ceases. This means that only breaches since the election can be considered.

Disclaimer: Opinions and statements published on the ‘Andy Strangeway Independent’ blog are those of the owner, Andy Strangeway, private individual, and not those of Councillor Andy Strangeway, elected member of East Riding of Yorkshire Council.